1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for transaction brokerage and a program recording medium thereof, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for transaction brokerage and a program recording medium thereof in which both of goods or service providers and customers become an information transmitters and the information transmitters select a party they conduct the transaction, in transaction brokerage between the providers and customers.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the Internet is widely used now, providers of services or goods (hereinafter referred to as “service providers”) are delivering information such as advertisements to consumers through Web pages or e-mail. In this case, recipients of the information are selected from customer profile information, purchase histories or activity histories of customers by using methods such as data mining. However, when service providers want to provide information of services or goods (or commodities) which they will be provide in a physically limited area and in a short time period, such recipient selection method as described above does not help the service providers to effectively target consumers.
On the other hand, when a consumer who requests a service from a service provider wants to obtain the service as soon as possible, it is desirable that the consumer selects the service provider which can provide the service in the shortest possible time, namely, the service provider nearest to the consumer, and ask for the service. At present, however, it is difficult for consumers to make such selection. For example, when the service is taxi transportation, a consumer can easily check out the location of a taxi company but cannot know the current positions of their taxis. Furthermore, when a consumer directly accesses a provider, the consumer's personal information may be brought to the knowledge of the provider before a transaction is settled. Then, the consumer can be placed at some disadvantage after the transaction fails to close. On the contrary, a provider who receives requests for services from consumers also cannot know a consumer wanting their service is in the proximity of the provider. Then, the provider misses the business opportunity.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a transaction brokerage method in which a transmitter of information selects a recipient and transmit the information to the selected recipient.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a transaction brokerage apparatus in which a transmitter of information selects a recipient and transmit the information to the selected recipient.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a transaction brokerage program in which a transmitter of information selects a recipient and transmit the information to the selected recipient.
It is further object of the present invention to provide a recording medium including a transaction brokerage program in which a transmitter of information selects a recipient and transmit the information to the selected recipient.